| Lessons
learned on the Mississippi River |
“Go
that way Daddy,” my nine-year-old son Thomas said
to me as we were riding our four wheeler across a large
sandbar in the back of our hunting club last Saturday next
to the Mississippi River. “No, let’s go ride
in the water next to the river,” I replied.
Earlier that day our family cooked hot dogs for lunch over
an open fire on our property next to “Old River”
inside Donaldson Point Hunting Club in western Bolivar County.
After lunch, Cindy took two-year-old baby girl Travis, and
seven-year-old Jordan, back to Cleveland in order for Jordan
to make his baseball game. Thomas and I decided to stay
at the club for the remainder of the day. Thomas has turned
into one great hunter/outdoorsman, taking his first turkey,
a 20 pound gobbler with a six inch beard, just the weekend
before while hunting with Cindy’s father. This past
winter he took his first deer at almost 100 yards.
As we rode across the massive sandbar that looked more like
a desert than a sandbar, we finally reached the six inch
shallow water about 300 yards from the river. On summer
days, the shallow sandbar water is great fun to play in.
Totally safe as the main river is quite a ways off in the
distance. We had ridden about a half mile distance parallel
to the river in the water and were turning away from the
river in order to head back to dry land. Less than ten feet
from dry ground, all of a sudden the four wheeler dropped
off into a deep hole in the water leaving Thomas and me
to jump, swim, or just whatever we could do to reach dry
ground. Thomas quickly made two jumps on to dry ground as
the four wheeler was sinking. I had to wade in water up
to my chest to get to dry ground.
After shaking off the water, all we could see of our four
wheeler were the handlebars. I stood there, two miles from
our truck at 4:30 in the afternoon in disbelief at what
had just taken place. As a father, I stood there thinking
of the stupid move that I had just made with my oldest son,
and that the mishap could have been worse. What if the water
had been 20 feet deep instead of five? What if dry ground
had been 100 yards away instead of ten feet? What if. Thomas
and I walked back across the sandbar and through the woods
to the truck. We then made the nine mile drive to the front
of the club, but saw no one. We decided that we would just
go home and come back early the next morning with some help
in order to try and retrieve our four wheeler.
That next morning, I phoned my close friend, Rives Neblett,
and asked him to help us fish our four wheeler out of the
water. Thomas, Jordan, Rives, Carroll Pearson (a club caretaker),
and I journeyed the long distance through the club to the
river in our trucks. We then unloaded Rives’ four
wheeler and set off for our sunken treasure. We soon arrived
at the spot where we had lost our four wheeler and to all
of our amazement, it was gone! I was astounded and as mad
as a hornet, quickly jumping to the conclusion that someone
had stolen it. We could see in the sand where another four
wheeler had pulled ours out of the water, turned it on it’s
side, and drained the water from the engine. Rives was the
cool one saying that we should consider the possibility
that perhaps a member of the club had found it and had taken
it back to the caretaker’s house. We all packed up
Rives’ four wheeler and headed back to the caretaker’s
house. Sure enough, there it was thanks to another good
club member who had found the four wheeler and had rescued
it.
I learned two important things that day.
Number 1, as a parent while with your child, never ever
take your eye off of the ball - always be on the ready for
any and every situation that could put your child in harm’s
way.
Number 2, don’t be so quick to think badly of others
as there are many, many good people out in the world that
take care of each other. How lucky we were that day to be
the recipients of some of that good will. In the end, it
was a good learning experience. One which I will not soon
forget.
Scott Coopwood
Publisher
